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Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. has taken a 40% stake in an Australian developer of nature-based carbon credits, it announced Thursday, further extending its growing involvement in voluntary emissions markets.

World’s most powerful tidal turbine begins exporting power to UK grid, delivering an important milestone for the technology.

The post World’s most powerful tidal turbine begins exporting power to grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Acciona gets clearance for an expanded solar farm, a 600MW project in the heart of coal country in central Queensland.

The post Acciona gains approval for huge 600MW solar project in Queensland appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Wind and solar projects are queuing up, but short term factors and high coal prices cause us to lift our wholesale price forecasts.

The post Wind and solar could deliver 65 pct of Australia demand by 2030 if built on time appeared first on RenewEconomy.

How many have died and why is a mystery – and we need your help to solve it

Over the past few weeks, we’ve received a flurry of emails from concerned people who’ve seen sick and dead frogs across eastern Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

One person wrote: “About a month ago, I noticed the Green Tree Frogs living around our home showing signs of lethargy & ill health. I was devastated to find about 7 of them dead.”

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Last year was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eight sunniest on record in the UK, scientists warn.

California minted almost 1 million new compliance-grade offsets over the past two weeks, but these issuances came as a new West Coast wildfire appeared to impact another existing forestry project registered under the WCI-linked cap-and-trade programme, state data and researchers reported this week.

It’s typically rare to see a dead frog. Yet, we’ve received a flurry of emails from people coming across them in this truly unusual, and tragic, mass death event. Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, UNSW, Australian Museum Karrie Rose, Australian Registry of Wildlife Health - Taronga Conservation Society Australia, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

New ABARES research examines the climate change challenge facing Australian farmers Neal Hughes, Senior Economist, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The EU on Wednesday released its national allocation tables determining free carbon allowance allocations for 2021-25 after several months of delays, revealing quotas of permits to be given to emitters in most of the countries participating in the EU ETS.

The UK government has opened a consultation into proposed amendments to its emissions trading legislation in order to correct “outstanding technical issues identified during the development and legislation of the scheme”.

Scientists record fin-to-fin contact in gentle giants, most likely part of courtship, for first time

Fin-to-fin synchronised swimming, thought likely to be part of courtship, has been seen in groups of basking sharks for the first time. Video cameras attached temporarily to the sharks gave scientists an unprecedented view of their hitherto secret underwater world.

The gentle giants are usually solitary creatures and virtually nothing is known about their breeding behaviour. The researchers also recorded one shark shooting out above the water, the first time a full breaching has been captured from the shark’s point of view. This may also be part of wooing a mate, perhaps by showing off the fish’s size.

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Brazilian offset developer Biofilica announced its acquisition by a multinational environmental management firm on Tuesday, with the purchase aimed at generating 10 times as many voluntary emissions reductions (VERs) compared to current volumes and expanding into more nature-based project types.

A Texas-based hedge fund opened a RGGI CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) account on Wednesday, with the firm having been linked to two previous speculative accounts under a different name.

Norway’s Equinor on Wednesday defended its plans to extract more oil and gas, fending off analyst questions about whether the company risked legal action over a lack of climate ambition.

Experiment using caffeine concoction on bees’ nests may help farmers ensure crops are pollinated

The caffeine in the morning coffee that primes many humans for the day appears to inject bumblebees with a similar dose of purpose, helping them pollinate more effectively, a study has found.

The impact of the climate crisis, habitat loss and pesticide use has strained wild pollinator populations, including bees, moths, wasps, butterflies, beetles and birds. As a result, some fruit growers have resorted to relying on “managed pollinators” such as commercial bumblebee colonies to pollinate their crops.

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Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s former press secretary, responds to question on Tories’ ‘unambitious’ climate policies

Boris Johnson’s former press secretary, who is now his spokesperson for the Cop26 climate summit, has said people could join the Green party as a way of saving the planet – while also saying joining the Tories would help as well.

Allegra Stratton, who moved from Downing Street to the Cop26 team in April, after plans were axed for daily TV briefings which she had been expected to front, made her comments to the Independent.

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Hungary-based airline Wizz Air expects its passenger capacity to reach pre-pandemic levels this summer, it said on Wednesday while criticising Brussels' proposals for an EU-wide tax on jet fuel.

This project would rapidly deforest large areas of the Amazon, which would wreak havoc on the planet

Despite increasing global concern, Jair Bolsonaro is determined to expand his exploitation of Brazil’s crucial natural resources. His latest project, one of the most destructive yet, would rapidly deforest large areas of the Amazon.

Bolsonaro’s plan? To construct a 1,000km railway system extending right into the heart of the Amazon rainforest – with trains passing within 500 metres of 726 official environmentally protected areas. The new railway, called Ferrogrão, would also entail construction within 10km of another 18 priority conservation areas established by the ministry of the environment.

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